Reprisal & Restitution
by ankwerp
Summary: Everyone is the hero of their story and realizing yourself the villain can be a hard pill to swallow. Thomas Fulton has fought for all his life against one thing or another and lost a part of his humanity somewhere on the way. Is redemption even possible, or has he already passed the point of no return?
1. They Buried My Heart In Camala

**Year 2184, Illium - Precise Location Unknown**

I once fought for what is right. Or atleast what I then thought was right. I gave the best 15 years of my life in service of humanity's interests. I cared about the Alliance and I thought it cared about me.

How naive of me.

Once I had outlived my usefulness I was thrown away like a used rag. A discharge and a pat on the back was what I got for giving my life and my damn legs to them. And on that day, lying on the hospital bed, for the first time in my life I felt completely hopeless. My life had crashed and burned around me. I had nothing left.

I didn't learn that nobody could give a damn about me in this godforsaken galaxy. I didn't want to.

And so for four more years I fought for someone else's goals, someone else's war. I found that meaning I was looking so hard for again, and something... more. Until it happened again. Shit got tough and we, the disposable ones were left behind. Acceptable casualties to accomplish the mission is what we were. I alone managed to crawl my way out of that living hell they left us in. After that I swore to myself I would never again fight for someone else. Only for my own reasons.

Enough of the reminiscing, I have people to kill.

The elevator ding signalled my arrival to the top floor of one of the thousands of skyscrapers dotting the skyline of Illium. What's special about this one you ask? Nothing really. What is special is what allegedly lives on the inside. A certain Mr. Barnett. A certain Mr. Barnett whom I also happen to have business of the exceptionally violent variety with. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

The gleaming hallways and dignified use of colours radiated the opulence these people lived in. A stark contrast to the lower levels dull greys and blinding neon lights. But whilst the literal shit stayed firmly in the lower city, the figurative ones floated their way up here so the atmosphere didn't really change that much. As familiarly oppressive as ever.

After a minute of walking, I found the door I was looking for. Apartment 711 in the 71st floor of the building. Soon enough I'll see whether my source was full of crap or not. Only thing stopping me now is the quite reinforced door in front of me. One of those sliding ones. Couldn't kick it in even if I wanted to. And believe me I do. Hacking's right out of the window aswell. The day I can hack a high security door like this, hell freezes over. So that leaves us with one option which also happens to be my favourite one.

Explosives.

I dug out the breaching charge from under my long coat and carefully attached it to the right places on the door, listening to my surrounding at the same time for anyone coming to interrupt me. After getting the charge in place I took my loyal Carnifex pistol from a holster hidden under my jacket. Haven't met a thing with a heartbeat that this thing couldn't kill yet, and I very much doubt that Mr. Barnett will prove me otherwise.

I tried to get a heat signature through the walls with my omni-tool to see what I was up against, but it proved futile as the walls seemed to be insulated too well. Figures in a fancy place like this.

With nothing else left to do I settled leaning into the wall next to the door as I counted slowly down from three.

A deafening boom came from the charge as it blew, violently forcing the sliding metal door to open. I immediately rushed in through the smoke with the Carnifex at the ready to shoot at any threats that may appear on the other side. Glass object were shattered all across the hallway and paintings on the wall had ripped from the strength of the blast. Might have overshot the amount of explosives in the charge. Other than the destruction, the hallway was empty. As the charge blew, I had heard a scream coming from inside so atleast someone was home but unless my target had a habit of screaming like a woman, it was not him. But he could still be in.

Nearing a door, I remembered from my research of this place to lead into a bedroom, I heard quiet crying and someone shussing the crier. At least two people. I lined up with the door and kicked it in, bursting into the room pointing at the the occupants with my pistol. In the room were two very provocatively dressed asari, whores most likely, and a single human male holding a pistol towards me with shaking hands and a terrible form.

"Bingo." I said under my breath as I scanned him over. A middle aged man with graying dark hair and eyeglasses. That's my guy alright.

"Stop right there thug or I'll shoot!" Mr. Barnett yelled, making a gesture with his gun that I suppose was meant to be threatening. It was clear from how he held the gun that, A, he had little to no training with the weapon and B, he was about to shit himself with fright if I took a step more in his direction.

'This'll be easy', I though as I shot the Carnifex so that the bullet hit his right arm, that was holding the gun, at the elbow. Barnett dropped the gun screaming almost in tune with his paid company, as his right elbow exploded with the power of the high caliber hand gun, sending splatters of blood all over the room. I quickly advanced to him now that he was unarmed and kicked him hard in the right knee. The knee made a sickening crunch and buckled backwards, making its owner fall to the ground on his wounded right arm that was only hanging on by flesh. These tin-can legs are good for something atleast.

I moved my gaze from the crying heap of a man on the floor to the sobbing asari duo clinging to each other in the corner, holding onto each other like you would hold onto a escape pod in the middle of getting spaced.

"Hey!" I yelled to get their attention. The darker skinned one's eyes snapped to mine, the other one just kept looking down.

"Scram." I said and jerked my head towards the door. The darker asari took no time in dragging her still sobbing friend up and towards the door. They wouldn't go and talk to the cops, no harm in letting them go. As they were leaving I turned my attention back to Barnett who was still crying on the floor. I grabbed a hold of his shirt and dragged him roughly into a sitting position against the wall, as he screamed in pain from the sudden movement.

"Last year, you were a middleman in hiring a merc outfit to get an artefact from a batarian colony of Camala. On who's orders? Talk." I said in a unnaturally calm tone for the situation.

"Why do you wanna know?" Barnett replied miserably from his place, leaning against the wall. Instead dignifying him with a answer, I took my gun and shot him in his good knee's kneecap, making it explode in bone and blood.

"Talk." I said again as he was howling in pain. After few moments of him recovering and catching his breath from all the yelling in pain, he spat through clenched teeth: "Why would I tell you? You're gonna kill me anyways." On the inside I quite was surprised at how long he was holding out. Maybe I was wrong about him? Unlikely, I did my research. This sudden bout of resistance should pass soon enough. On the outside of me you couldn't see any sign of the 'conversation' going on in my head. To him, I just looked at him with a uninterested look.

After a few moments of tense silence on his end and waiting on mine, he buckled. "A-All right! All right. I was hired by this turian who said he was working for a spectre." He explained with a wavering voice.

"Who?" I asked, moving my gun to point at his groin. This was the best part of the interrogation, the untrained ones would open up like a book.

And Barnett didn't disappoint.

"S-Saren! It was Saren, OK? The guy said he was working for Saren. That's all I know I fucking swear to you!"

"Saren! The fucking dead traitor spectre? You expect me to believe that you lying sack of shit?!" I suddenly yelled at his face in rage, a complete u-turn from my previously composed voice, good cop, bad cop works surprisingly well alone too I've noticed. I slammed my pistols barrel down, so that it was touching his dick. I half pulled the trigger to receive a small electric whining noise, signalling it's readiness to castrate my target.

"I'm not lying I swear to you! P-please d-don't kill me!" He cried as loud as he could in panic and tried to squirm away from under my gun.

Satisfied enough that he was not lying I stored the info to be processed later. He would not lie about something less significant now. So I asked about the other turian. "What about the one you were in contact with? Name. Now." Back to my calm and collected act.

"I-I never got a name! But he looked like some common terminus thug, armor and all. W-white face paint. That's all I know! Now p-please let me go, I-" His sentence was cut short as I blew the back of his head clean off, painting the wall behind him beautiful crimson shade. The body flopped limply to the ground as I stood up and started walking to the door. Better be out of the scene when the police show up. Someone slammed their door shut just as I stepped out of the apartment. Some neighbour too nosy for their own good no doubt. Atleast they had the brains to stay out of my way.

My boots clanged on the elevators metal floor as I stepped back in. My surprisingly slow way down for a hotel of this price range begun after pressing the ground floor button. A silhouette of a finger was left painted on blood where I had pressed. Looking up at myself on the elevators mirror, I noticed I had gotten more bloody than I had noticed. Luckily my dark clothes didn't reveal much of the splatters unless one was looking very closely, so I didn't look like a damn axe murderer walking out of here. I cleaned the blood from my face on the sleeve of the jacket, and managing to get rid of most of it.

After I had made myself look somewhat non-suspicious my thoughts turned to the information I had managed to gleam from my target.

Saren the traitorous ex-spectre, dead as of now, was at the very least involved. I couldn't exactly interrogate him anymore, so alternative route it is. Commander Shepard and her crew. They famously hunted him. If anyone knows about his unlawful doings and the reasons for them, it's them.

Ding went the elevator again bringing me back to Earth, well Illium.

The lobby of the building was seemingly calm. In a way the wind is before the storm. I speed-walked towards the exit, when two police cruisers stopped in front of the building. I slipped behind a pillar next to the door, peeking from behind it. Three police officers, two asari and a turian, came in and ran past me to the elevator. They took it up without seeing me. Seems like lady luck was on my side this time. I eased away from the pillar and left through the door. I managed two whole steps outside when I heard the distinctive noise of a gun being pulled from my left. Or maybe lady luck was not.

"Stop right there! Hands in the air and on your knees!" Shouted a young female voice.

Well shit. They left someone to keep watch of the door. Without any sudden movements, I lowered myself on my knees and put my hands on top of my head. I saw from the corner of my eye, as the young asari officer, apparently satisfied with my surrender, approached me gun first whilst taking her radio out to contact her colleagues. "This is Officer L'Sania in front of the building. I have apprehended a human male attempting to leave the prem-AGH!"

While she was concentrating on reporting my arrest, I took full advantage of her distraction and jumped her. I twisted her gun arm with both of my arms, so that the barrel was pointed at her head whilst bringing my left leg to block her right one from behind, so she couldn't retreat. It happened in a blink of an eye, and she only managed to look at me in surprise, before I pulled the trigger and ended her life.

She fell dead on the street under her, colouring it purple with her blood. "Shame." I said before leaving the scene towards on of the nearby alleyways, where I stashed my airbike. Next to the asari's cooling body, her radio shouted in alarm as her colleagues tried to reach her.

The entry to the alleyway was in a darkzone of the cameras and I slipped in and found my bike under a dirty tarp.

I sat on the bike's saddle and put on my jet black helmet. Before leaving, I stopped to think for a few seconds about my next move. I'd have to find a Commander Shepard's former crewmember, who was willing to talk, or one that could be persuaded to. They'd have the next clue.

I blew air out of my nose in amusement. A real fucking puzzle this one, allright. Thousand pieces and all.

My thought's turned serious again as I prepared to leave, making sure I'd leave nothing behind.

At least now I fought for a good reason.

Revenge.

With that thought, I turned the bike on and sped towards my safehouse in the lower levels.

I had a lot to do.


	2. Echoes Of Torfan Souls

**2184, Illium - Janiri Skyscraper Crimescene**

**Lieutenant Anxus**

The door of the aircar opened and Lieutenant Anxus of Illium Upper District Police Department stepped out. The scene in front of him was holo'd off and few curious onlookers were milling around on the edges of the scene. There was a faint metallic smell in the air. One Anxus was too damn familiar with, having worked 23 years in Illium PD.

Blood.

He walked through the holo cordoning off the scene, the scanners detecting his status as a officer and blinking green. The front of the building had two police cruisers parked in a V formation forming a textbook barricade in front of the doors. Between the doors and the cruisers was a large pool of purple blood and a inert holoprojector. No doubt when activated showing the state of the victim from before it was cleaned up.

Anxus couldn't help and feel a bit of pride at seeing the efficiency of his men and women. Everything was done as well as it could have. He earmarked to give a bonus to the officers involved in this scene.

"Lieutenant. Good to see you." Said Officer Hemes, a salarian subordinate of his, walking out from the building. A good man and excellent at his job.

"Likewise Hemes, even if the circumstance is as it is." Hemes nodded gravely. "Run me through what happened here." I said looking at the pool of blood.

"Certainly lieutenant. After techs went through the camera feeds and the scene we have a pretty good picture of what happened here." Hemes said in a quick voice that was typical to salarians. "The perp, a human male, came walking from that direction and went straight inside." He said pointing to the left of the building. "There was no hesitation in the perp's movement. It was clear he had prior knowledge of this place. I've already put the techs looking at older recordings to see if we can spot him." I nodded approvingly but said nothing, letting the salarian continue. "How he got inside is interesting. You see lieutenant, he had a key."

"A Key?" I said in surprise. I had expected that the man would have hacked his way inside.

"Indeed lieutenant. The key is to room 327 which belongs to a volus stock trader. We have not been able to find the man yet, but I've put out a notice to our patrols."

"Do you reckon the volus was involved?" I asked.

"Possible, but with the ruthlessness of the perp, I fear the volus did not part with it peacefully." Hemes said and started walking toward the elevator. "The perp continued with the elevator. He went to the 71st floor, more specifically, room 711. Please follow me lieutenant."

We went together to the elevator and Hemes pressed the button for 71st floor. I noted a bloody fingerprint on the button, but it was too smooth to have any actual patterns on it.

A professional most likely with no prints.

When we got to the correct floor, Hemes continued: "The human walked to the end of the hallway to room 711, and promptly blew away the door. This alarmed the neighbours who called the police. Though no one of them saw anything."

I blinked in surprise. "Blew away the door?" Definitely professional.

"Indeed lieutenant. Military grade breaching charge. Camera caught it all. Clearly the perp has prior experience with such ordinance, suggesting military experience." They kept walking until they were in the bedroom of the apartment. The body on the floor was in rough condition. Lying in a large pool of red blood his right arm and left knee both nearly torn off by a powerful gunshot. Right knee was bent un-naturally for a human and to top it all off the back half of his head seemed to be missing.

"Who is the victim?" I asked, voice serious as I scanned the room.

"Mr. Andrew Barnett. Age 64, business manager of Limitless Exports Noveria Inc. No known criminal history. Seems that Mr. Barnett was having nightly company of two as of yet unidentified asari when the perp hit." Hemes took a breath and continued. "After entering the perp shot Mr. Barnett who was holding his gun in the right arm with a large caliber hand gun. Carnifex most likely by the wounds. The two asari were either let go, or managed to escape. Neither appeared wounded so I would support former theory. After that, we suspect Mr. Barnett was interrogated. This theory is supported by the close range of the two latter shots and their interval. His right knee was kicked in and the left shot with the, same as earlier, gun. After this he was finished with a point black shot to the head."

We stood there in silence for a moment, as I pondered the scene and Hemes waited for my reply.

"Find everyone who might have carried a grudge against the victim. Business partners, loved ones, everything. This reeks of a paid professional." I said after forming a reasonable theory in my head.

"Will do lieutenant. Shall we continue?" Hemes asked.

"Lead the way Hemes." I replied.

Hemes kept speaking as we went back to down the elevator: "The perp took his leave immediately after finishing off Mr. Barnett. He went back down to the lobby and almost ran into our first responders."

"Almost? What do you mean? As far as I know there is only one way out of the lobby." I replied.

"Indeed, but the perp thought quickly on his feet. He hid behind this pillar as Officers Quinin, Vete and T'Soma went up on the elevator." He explained pointing at the pillar.

"They did not sweep the lobby? That is standard procedure!" I barked angrily. How could they have forgotten? Vete I could have understood, with only a 16 months under his belt, but both Quinin and T'Soma were senior officers. They are up for a asschewing of a lifetime once i get back in the office.

"Apparently they thought the perp was still up the building, and rushed to capture him, sir." Hemes explained, ignoring my burst of anger. "They reasoned that Officer L'Sania could stop from going in, or coming out."

I held my palm on my face for a moment until I calmed enough to speak without snapping again. I took a heavy breath and asked Hemes to continue.

"After this the perp moved to leave the area but Officer L'Sania managed to get the jump on him. As she was radioing the others for help she walked too close to the perp who turned her own gun on her and shot her in cold blood." Hemes finished sadly. Sona L'Sania was a rookie, having worked less than a year but already she had managed to endear herself to most of the precinct with her enthusiasm.

"Damn kid. What did you go and do." I lamented whilst shaking my head sadly.

"The move he performed on Officer L'Sania gives us near rock hard evidence of the fact that the perp has extensive military training. Likely special operations." Hemes reasoned as we stood over the hologram of L'Sanias corpse. "After the murder, he left the way he came from and vanished into a camera blindspot not far from here." Hemes concluded his walkthrough.

I sighed wearily. 15 years ago I would have not been able to sleep until the suspect was caught, but now I felt like doing nothing more. But the wicked do not rest, and neither will I. "Thank you Hemes. Continue with the investigation and keep me informed. I'll have to go and inform Officer L'Sanias family."

Hemes bowed his head respectfully and we parted ways. I sat back into the aircar and set the destination back to the department. I got a feeling that this was not the last time I'd be dealing with this unknown human assassin. And next time, I would catch the man.

* * *

**2184, Illium - The Perpetrators Safehouse**

**Thomas Fulton**

After getting back to my temporary lodging I took a quick, cold shower and put my bloodied clothing in the washing machine and turned it on. Munching on a ready-to-eat meal I sat down to search through the extranet for everything I could, about the current whereabouts of late Commander Shepard's crew.

Jane Shepard, the golden girl of the Alliance and the first human spectre. Killed little over a year ago when her ship was attacked in space. I amusedly thought about how very different our military careers had been. She almost single handedly saved the colony of Elysium from batarian slavers. Afterwards, any mission that had public eye on it, they would send Shepard.

And in the end she was made a spectre. A veritable legend in her own right.

I, on the other hand did all the shit the Alliance didn't want anyone to know about. Black-ops, interrogation, assassination. You name it. And my career ended with my legs being blown off by a batarian slaver on Torfan and a just about honourable discharge, with a 'We're sure you understand'.

I looked back down at my omni-tool where in the midst of my thinking I had managed to make a list of all the members of Shepard's close circle during their mission to hunt Saren.

Kaidan Alenko, killed during their hunt for the rogue spectre. I put a line over his name.

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, returned to the quarian migrant fleet apparently. No way in hell am I going to get access there. Another line.

Ashley Williams, still serving with the alliance. I could ask from my old contacts in intelligence of her whereabouts. Strongest lead so far. I made a circle around her name.

Urdnot Wrex, krogan merc. Located in Tuchanka according to latest info. Even if I could get in to the krogan DMZ, I very much doubt he would talk to me. And interrogation is a no go against a fucking krogan battlemaster. Yet another line.

Garrus Vakarian, served with c-sec until recently. Apparently resigned and left Citadel to a unknown location. I could go and subtly ask about his location from his former colleagues. Pretend to be an old friend. Potential. Circle.

And lastly, Liara T'Soni. Located right here on Illium, working as a information broker. Easiest to access but I'd rather not deal with her if I don't have to. Information brokers are rarely trustworthy and I don't want her to inform my potential target of me. Regardless I put a circle around her name too, but she would be a last choice.

I closed the list and opened my contacts list, selected one named William Rook and pressed call. Few seconds went by until a brusque voice answered: "What do you want Fulton?"

"It's been a while Bill, how're you doing?"

"Cut the crap Tom. You only call me when you need something and god knows I owe it to you but I'm a busy man so get to point." Rook answered.

"Allright then. I need the current location of Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams." I explained to him.

"Of Shepard's crew? Hm. Gimme a sec." I could hear the pinging of a holo-keyboard as Rook no doubt typed in her name to dig up any info that Alliance Intelligence servers had on her. He and I used to be real close, years ago. Back when he was the intelligence liaison to my company. In fact, the missile that took my legs was meant for him.

* * *

**6 years prior, 2178, Torfan - Assault Zone Echo**

**Major Thomas Fulton**

Our insertion had been fairly successful. The batarians had been taken by surprise as we came in. Most of their AA-guns hadn't even had time to start blasting before we secured them. Of course that was only the top of the batarian iceberg. Most of the enemy forces were bunkered nice and good in their holes in the ground. My unit was split up into squads across the moon to do maximum damage. Me and Magpie Squad were tasked with getting in and accessing the databanks before they could wipe them.

We were gathered at a 'secret' side entrance to the bunker where the main servers of the complex were. Our anticipated resistance was light as we presumed that most enemy personnel would concentrate on a company of the 355th Marine Corps, lovingly codenamed Team Hammer, that was assigned to assault zone echo with us.

"Got it, Sir." said Corporal Eline from the door as the lock turned from red to green. For this mission I had hand picked the best individuals from the company; Cpl. Eline, best damn tech specialist I have ever seen. Sgt. Mitchner, medic from 3rd platoon. Quiet man, but got job done with no hassle. Lt. Holling, a top scoring marksman and a good friend at your back. SSgt. Radcliff, taking the role of support gunner for this mission. And last but not least our Alliance Intelligence Service liaison, Lt. William Rook.

"Allright everyone. You all know what to do, Holling take point, on one. Three. Two. One." the door opened with a clang, courtesy of Cpl. Eline and we moved in. Two batarians were just approaching towards the door as we came in. They didn't even have time to lift their guns before both were shot down.

We moved quickly. Only scanning the hallways and disposing of any slaver-soldiers or pirates we met. There was a very real danger of getting cut off this way, but we were on a timer. This info could bring down the whole slaver scene in the Verge and we could not let a chance like that slip between our fingers. So into danger we went.

As we moved through the tight hallways of the facility on our way to the server room, we met almost no resistance. That made put me very much on edge: "Expected enemy presence was small, but this is nothing compared to what intel said there'd be. Where hell are all of them?" I asked Rook who was moving at the centre of the formation with me.

"Our distraction must have been more efficient than we anticipated." Rook reasoned with me.

"Maybe, but I don't like this. Keep alert." Rook nodded in answer.

The way to the server room stayed clear for the rest of the way. Eline went to hack the door as we kept the vicinity secured. Once done we swept in the server room, and found it empty as well. Despite the feeling of impending doom in my stomach, I calmly ordered my squad to act: "Eline get to work. Radcliff get some explosives on those doors. Holling, Mitchner side door. Rook and I take the main one. I don't want a single batarian to enter this room alive until were done and gone!"

My squad got to work like the well oiled machine they were and I too settled to overlook the door we came in from with my rifle ready to fire. Tense minutes passed. Radcliffe had already moved to the second door when Eline came to the radio: _"Major, theres something wrong with the server th-"_

**BOOOOOM!**

A huge explosion suddenly shook the room from behind me and cut off what the corporal was about to tell. I was thrown forward and struck a railing with my head, disorienting me badly. I could faintly hear gunfire being exchanged and a secondary explosion somewhere around me and tried to point my rifle in at the noise as my vision spun violently. A shot hit my barrier making them flare bright blue. I fired a burst towards where I was fairly certain it had come from. As my vision started to stabilize I could see a batarian in armour entering the room. I sent two bursts at him, the first one breaking his shields and the second bringing him down. On my right Rook was firing at the door to keep anymore from entering. I took the time to let my gun cool and opened my radio: _"Sitrep!"_ I yelled into the commline.

_"They've surrounded the room! It was a goddamn trap! Eline is down and Radcliff is wounded!"_ Holling's winded voice came through the line. I couldn't see their position as the servers were blocking the view but the constant gunfire told me all I needed to know.

The word fuck went running through my head as I tried to reach Team Hammer, that was assaulting the main entrance of the facility, on the comm.

_"This is Magpie Squad calling Team Hammer! We're pinned down in the server room! I've got a man down!"_ I received only static in response.

"Shit." I said out loud as I took my turn at keeping the batarians at bay when Rook's rifle started beeping a overheat. Some dumb-as-shit pirate took the beeping as a invitation to enter but was immediately put down by a precise spray of bullets from my rifle. I tried to think about a way out of this mess whilst keeping a steady coverfire aimed at the doorway. We were closer to the main entrance by now than the side one we came through and if we managed to punch through we could get a connection to the main force assaulting this facility. In any case we couldn't stay here. Sooner or later the batarians had to get smart and start throwing granades at us, and I didn't want to be in the room when that happened.

_"Holling keep firing! Mitchner grab Eline! Radcliff, can you shoot?"_ I barked into the comm.

_"Yes sir!"_ came my reply from Radcliff. _"Good. Then when I give the word empty your granade launcher through the side doorway. Rook get ready to clear any stragglers. I'll keep this door covered. Afterwards, we'll go up the elevator at the end of the hall and link up with Team Hammer"_ I quickly explained and once I got a row of affirmatives and Rook had reached the side door, I primed a granade in my hand and gave the go ahead.

As I heard the first blast from the granade launcher explode I threw my granade at the door I was watching and started sprinting to the side door. Atleast a half a dozen batarian bodies lied in the doorway as I reached it and another 5 in the hallway outside. My squad was already moving towards the elevator that would take us on the upper levels. I joined them and shot a long spray into the hallway behind us as I saw batarians starting to emerge from the room we had vacated. One of them fell down and the rest stopped their advance for the moment. We managed to reach the elevator just as the batarians got combat shields up and started to advance against us. A lucky shot managed to find it's way in my arm just as the doors closed and I hissed in pain. My suit's medi-gel dispenser whirred into work to contain the damage and dull the pain until it could be treated.

"The corporal's not good Major." Mitchner said to me from behind. I turned around to see her state myself.

Her armor had shredded and melted on her and all visible parts of her body were horribly burnt. Few deep lacerations marred her torso and helmet. Must have been a really big incendiary explosive to make that kind of damage. I turned my head to look at Radcliff's wounds. He had a bulletwound on his left shoulder and thigh, but nothing too serious.

"We'll go as fast as we can. Do whatever you can for her in the meanwhile." It was a given that he would even without my explicit order, but it kept my thoughts straight to keep on top of the situation. The sergeant just nodded without looking at me as he kept treating her.

After a short while the elevator reached the top floor and we entered straight from the frying pan and into the fire. In front of the elevator were 6 batarians behind a barricade, with their backs to us shooting at the other end of the room. They had clearly been waiting for reinforcements and their presumed commander was looking at us all four of his eyes wide as plates before he snapped back to it and started firing.

We surged out of the elevator guns blazing, but as the enemies noticed us at their backs, we became target number one. We managed to clear the barricade in front of us quickly, but I saw next to me Holling go down before we reached cover.

I kept popping in and out of cover and shooting at any batarian I could see. On the other side of the room I saw members of Team Hammer firing at the batarians too. Long range comms were still out but I managed to reach them on close range: _"Friendlies in front of the elevator! Watch your fire!"_

"_Copy!"_ A feminine voice replied hastily.

The battle didn't last long as the remaining 30 or so batarians fell in the crossfire. After the shooting stopped the marines moved in to mop up any stragglers. I sat heavily against the barrier that we were holed up behind. My eyes fell onto the body of Holling, lying face down on the dirty concrete floor. On my left I heard Rook curse as he moved to check his body and after scanning for life signs shaked his head slowly. I just sat there looking at him for a moment, when heavy footsteps came past the barrier to stand next to me.

"Captain Hedge, 1st company, 4th battalion of the 355th, Sir." The tall woman next to me said saluting and then offered her hand to pull me up.

I took her hand and she pulled me up on my feet. "Captain." I nodded at her. "Get them a evac ASAP." I said to her nodding at the direction of Eline and Radcliff. She nodded her assent and barked orders for his men to transport them. After that she turned back to me; "Major, there's a situation at zone delta. The enemy is heavily entrenched and the 401st has been unable to break through. Whats worse, is that their AA is functional and they have a long range jammer. Were completely deaf here, hell, we are using runners to organize the assault. You are the most senior officer I've heard from in an hour so, what are your orders, sir"

I nodded wearily as I mulled over the new info for a few moments. We had to get that jammer offline. This whole operation was in danger as long as it was on. Attacking blind was almost suicidal but it was about our only choice at the moment.

"We need to get to that jammer fast. Rig the entrance of this place to blow, afterwards gather your men and rally at these co-ordinates. Doubletime! Mitchner, Rook with me." I ordered and transferred co-ordinates of the rally point I chose to her. I was about to turn away when a soldier came running at us. "Captain we got prisoners. Where do we take them?"

Before the captain could answer, I spoke: "Shoot them."

The soldier looked at me in surprise and then at her captain; "Sir?" he said in a unsure tone.

Captain Hedge looked at me seriously. "Sir with all due respect. We cannot do that. It is a warcrime."

I snapped at her. "If we do not move quick, our soldiers will be fighting deaf in the field. Every minute we stall, our soldiers DIE preventable deaths. If you want to watch over some batarian slavers while your comrades fall to their friends because of your inaction, I will have no choice but to see you unfit for command." I said to her with intensity, looking her straight at where her eyes would be under the helmet.

I didn't wait for her answer as I moved towards the entrance, but before I could exit the facility I heard faint gunshots echoing from the walls behind me.

The raging of battle could be heard in the artificial air of the moon's surface. The generators that kept up the atmosphere around the base had been another priority mission. Apparently a lot more successful one than ours. Rook moved to walk next to me as we moved towards the regrouping point some way from facility echo.

"You wont get any criticism from me Fulton, but you know that someone will report that, right?" Rook asked me, making sure that Sgt. Mitchner couldn't hear him.

"And if the Alliance cares more about the lives of batarians than humans, I've been fighting for the wrong side for all this time." I said in a clipped tone. Not in the mood to debate at the moment.

"Jesus Tom, I know you're not a big fan of the top brass or the politicians, but you have to atleast see how that could be used against the Alliance as ammunition by other races, ESPECIALLY the batarians."

I just kept walking and didn't answer. After a few moments Rook moved away from me, swearing at my 'obstinacy'.

After about fifteen minutes the, by my count 71, marines had gathered and we had met a runner from the 401st informing us of their attack schedule. I gave the all clear message to activate the trigger of the explosives the marines had set and we watched as the main entrance to facility echo crumbled on itself, forcing all would be reinforcements to take the long way round through the side entrance.

"Captain Hedge, ready your men. We move in five." I informed the captain, who after my outburst at her, had only interacted with me the minimum amount necessary, as was the case now too. She answered with a clipped 'Sir.' and went to follow her orders. I didn't care, as long as she did her job.

Facility delta was about 300 meters from our position. It was next to a small ridge on the surface of the moon that would give us cover until we were mere 20 meters away. I used my helmets tactical lens to zoom in for a closer look. It was larger and more heavily armed than echo had been. It looked like a large square bunker, with only one entrance and lots of small holes for shooting. On it's roof sat a few turrets and a massive AA-gun was blasting ordinance up the skies like the re was no tomorrow. Which was probably true for the operator of the gun.

One whole battalion from 401st had been sent against the facility. Now apparently two companies from the 113th had joined in from the north-east, and of course, what remained of Team Hammer and Magpie Squad, acting under my command. Over 500 men were going to assault the building in just a few minutes. We had to break through, no matter the cost. The jammer had to be shut down.

Five minutes went by as I analyzed the defenses and finalized the strategy. Once the time was up, we started moving. As we got near the facility we could hear the fighting start. Once we reached it, I moved on top of the ridge and saw that no enemies were in sight. They were all concentrated on 401st and 113th's assault. I gave the signal and eight marines moved in pairs of two to the wall. Their job was to create an entrance, and their tools; high-powered explosives. Same ones that brought down facility echo. After a tense minute or so of setting the ordinance, the marines retreated back behind the ridge to take cover from the explosion.

"Do it." I ordered and someone counted from three down. The explosion threw pieces of vacuum-reinforced concrete over the ridge in front of us. I immediately stood up and started running towards one of the openings. "GO GO GO!" I heard Captain Hedge shout behind me as everyone started moving.

The surprise didn't last long. Not even half of us had made it in when the defenses started turning towards us. I was on of the first ones in. A few nearly unrecognisable batarian corpses lie in the hallway that was opened to us by the explosives. I shot one that was trying to get back on it's feet. Rook and Mitchner were right behind me as we spearheaded the assault deeper into the bunker. The hallway ended into a barrack filled with beds and lockers. Five batarians inside started firing as the door opened, cutting down a marine that was following us. I slammed against the wall next to the door and took a granade from my belt. After a few seconds of cooking it, I threw it into the room. It exploded still in mid-air, killing one of the pirates and forcing the others to cover. Charging in to the room I shot two of them before my gun overheated. I threw it away and activated my omni-blade just in time to cut the second to last batarians gun in half as he tried to lift it. But the gun didn't stop the blade and it sank deep into the batarians torso.

"Watch out Major!" Mitchner yelled from the doorway, shooting at something behind the body in front of me. As the batarian slid off my blade, another one behind him fell sideways with a hole in the side of his head, his large gun clattering to the ground. A sniper. At this range it would have gone through his comrade and skewered me without much extra effort.

I took a few heavy breaths. "Thanks Sergeant." He nodded back and moved towards the end of the room. Some marines passed us as I was picking up my gun but were halted as gunfire ripped through the opening they were trying to enter, taking the two of them with. Mitchner rushed to one of them and dragged him to the side, beginning to scan him for injury list so he could begin to patch him up. Rook was already by the door, shooting into the room when I slammed on the opposite side of him.

I had a quick glance in when there was a lull in the incoming fire. It was large-ish comms room. The jammer had to be there. I signed the positions of the enemies I saw to rook and waited for the next pause in the batarians shooting. A few seconds passed by and their firing eased again. I leaned in and unloaded as much of my gun, as accurately as I could, before it overheated. I had barely made it back to cover when rounds started ripping at us again.

_"They are too heavily entrenched. I'll granade them, cover me."_ Came Rook's voice through my helmet. I nodded at him and leaned out to fire again. This time managing to get one of them through the weak point at the neck and he fell down dead or dying. Just as I was leaning back into cover, my eyes widened as I saw a glimpse of a missile launcher being aimed at the doorway. Rook was already leaning out to throw the granade with his upper body straight in the way of the incoming missile.

Shit.

I didn't think. I just acted on reflex.

Just as the granade left Rook's hand I slammed into him, pushing him back behind cover.

A flash of light.

I felt agonizing pain for a split second, until it morphed to a sensation of flying and then yet again, to falling. I saw a grey blur approaching quickly and then... Just darkness.

* * *

**Present Moment, Illium - The Perpetrators Safehouse**

The sound of Bill's voice brought me out of my memories.

"Shit, Tom. I don't know what you're doing, and I don't want to." I was sensing a but coming. "But whatever it is, it's got some serious security clearance. O-10 or special permission. Damn."

"Can you crack it?" I simply asked.

"Can I fucking crack it he asks... Look I'd love to help you, for old times sake if nothing else but if I open this, I can say goodbye to my career and a hearty hello to a jail cell for a long damn time. So, no. I can't crack it." He explained to me, like I had something wrong with my head.

"Well, there goes the easy option. Thanks anyway Bill." O-10 or higher was serious fucking clearance. And if even Bill declined to help with it, I very much doubted I could get anyone else to agree.

"I'd say be careful with whatever you're doing, but you're not gonna listen to me anyways so, see you around Tom." With that Rook cut the call.

I blew air heavily out of my nose. Well looks like I'm going to visit the Citadel.


	3. Escape From The Planet Of The Aliens

**Next Morning, Illium - Thomas' Safehouse**

**Thomas Fulton**

I had a fairly good sleep. About as good as I could get these days, so no pictures of ponies prancing on a field or some other shit like that unfortunately, but enough dreamless sleep to get my batteries loaded so to speak. I popped a painkiller into my mouth to dull the phantom pain in my legs. I wasn't sure the pills even did anything anymore, it was more like a habit nowadays. I moved to take my freshly cleaned clothes from the bowels of the thing that was like a washing machine interbred with a dryer, and started dressing up. Yeah, I left them in the machine for the night. Sue me.

My dark grey, casual pants, were starting to get a bit worn out. Might have to get some new ones at the Citadel if I have the time. I put them on regardless as they were my only pair. Before moving on to the shirt, I took a protective ballistic mesh shaped like a tank top, and slipped it on. It was standard military underarmour, effective against light firearms and stabs or slashes, but it was slightly modified to have the ability to be inconspicuously worn under civilian clothes. A favourite among police and bodyguards both. I attached a custom weapon magnet on the armour right under my left shoulder to hold the Carnifex.

Finally I put on my black, plain t-shirt and stretched my arms forwards trying to get the shirt to sit well. I turned my extended arms around, and observed the myriad of different tattoos on both my arms, looking like badly assembled jigsaw puzzles. I got most them before I joined the military, young me had damn terrible taste. I dropped my arms back to their place after a while of looking at the inked pictures.

My worn heavy boots were next as I took them from under the bed and sat down on it to put them on. The front of the boot was reinforced with some alloy or the other. Not really necessary for me, as my legs themselves were silicone covered metal. It was not like I was gonna hurt my toes if I stubbed them.

After getting the boots on, I took my Carnifex from the small table next to the bed and attached it onto the magnet under my shoulder. I had stripped and cleaned it the night prior already, a habit from my time in the Alliance, always clean your gun after use. I was cleaning it quite a lot, as it happened. Next in my check-up, I activated my omni-blade and it swung out, its orange glory for all the world to see, were it not for the walls around me. This thing saved my life more times than I'd like to count. Technically it was illegal for civilians, but in their hurry to get rid of me, the Alliance bigshots forgot to take back some choice equipment of mine, omni-tool included. I slowly opened my fist and let the blade vanish back into the nothing it had come from.

I moved to the hall of my exceedingly small hideout and took my black jacket from the hook on the wall. Manual. Hook. Nailed to the wall.

What can I say, the place was very cheap and the owner asked no questions.

My jacket, well more like a coat I suppose but I wouldn't claim to be an expert, went down to my upper thigh in length. It was made of a heavy artificial fabric and had a hood, which had proven it's use, and many good pockets on the inside that could fit all sorts of contraband. Small droplets of dried blood still decorated it's surface. I scratched the most visible ones off, but it wasn't really necessary as they weren't noticeable at all in most lighting. I threw the coat one me, its weight settling on my shoulders in a familiar way.

I moved to look over my duffle bag that I packed in the evening, making sure I hadn't forgot anything. Inside, miscellaneous items were packed tightly around a large case. The case was meant to spoof security scans, so that you could transport guns through checkpoints. It was really fucking hard to find one of these babies and I paid a shitload of money to get it. But it was worth it's weight in gold. In the case were neatly stored two identical combat knives, standard Alliance issue and my M-55 Argus assault rifle, which still left a space for my Carnifex to be stowed away in, before boarding the transport to the Citadel.

I zipped the bag close, satisfied everything I needed to take with me was there or on my person and swung it over my head, adjusting it so that it sat at my back.

I left the apartment closing the door behind me. I took a ramshackle elevator down to the ground floor and went to walk outside, when the owner, a old turian who's name I've forgotten, yelled at me. "You intending to come back human, carrying all that shit you came in with? If not I'll get someone else in tha' room." I looked at him sitting on his chair behind the counter. "Go on ahead old man, I'm done here."

With that I continued on my way out as the turian muttered something about 'having to get a new sucker in that room'. The filthy alleyway that the building was located in smelt of mixed blood and urine. The whole district was a mess. The police rarely ventured this deep in the lower levels, gangs held the fragile peace here. When it benefit them.

Nobody took much notice of me when I walked through the streets, even though humans were relatively rare down here.

After a few minutes of walking towards the nearest taxi station, which was a fair way away, I turned left into a narrow alley to cut through it. When I was half-way through a pair consisting of a turian female and a batarian male came to block my way out. I glanced behind me and saw one more batarian standing in the way I came from.

Great, muggers, must have singled me out a while back, I thought annoyed. My bag dropped from my shoulder to the ground next to me with a thump as the thugs advanced towards me. The batarian in front of me produced a knife from behind his back as he was walking. A vicious grin formed on his uncovered face as he spoke; "It'll be fun to watch you scream for your life before I take it, human scum." The other one was about to grab me from behind, intending to hold me down while the one in front gutted me. Before the rearguard could get a hold of me, I elbowed him hard just below the ribcage and he bent double as a result, gasping for breath. The knife-wielding bararian lunged at me, but I sidestepped the strike and responded with activating my omni-blade and sinking into his chest from under his outstretched arm. I felt the life leave his body with a single breath as the blade rent his heart in half.

"Spirits, fuck me!" The turian woman cursed in surprise as his friend slid off my blade. She was seemingly unarmed, but turian claws are dangerous even when they have no weaponry to use. Many a fighter has fallen underestimating them. I wasn't gonna be one of them. A short tense pause came as she was content to stay a few meters away from me, waiting for me to do the first move.

She probably thought I was going to retreat now that the way for me to do so was open again behind me. Unfortunately for her, she was dead wrong. Literally. I took my pistol from it's place under my arm and aimed at her. The turians eyes turned wide and she tried frantically to dodge, but at the distance we were from each other, even a blinded cripple could have hit. The Carnifex cracked angrily and her body thumped to the ground heavily, a sizable hole in the place where the heart should be. I lowered the gun back down and looked over my shoulder at the third one. He was still on the ground, holding his chest and trying to get some air into his lungs with desperate gasps.

I stowed my gun back under my arm and crouched down to pick up my bag again. I dusted off the worst grime off it before settling it on it's place on my back. I took a few steps to stand next to the wheezing batarian and smashed my heel to his throat hard. His head bent to unnatural angle with a crunch and his squirming stopped.

I cast one final look at the brutally efficient carnage I had wrought in the alley, before continuing on my way to the taxi station. What I didn't see was the Illium police surveillance camera that captured the whole exchange from up above and sent it on their servers, to be looked through.

I walked for fifteen more minutes until I reached the station in a somewhat better part of the town. I sat in one of the vacant automated aircars and directed it towards the spaceport where the ship I was going to board was. During the roughly half an hour of travelling, I stored my Carnifex in the case next to the Argus. After I was done with that I opened up my omni-tool and looked up information about the trip to the Citadel. It would take roughly a day or so to make the trip, with a stop at one of the larger colonies in the Eagle Nebula. Maybe I could try and get some more sleep on the way, and if not I'd work on the plan for the mission.

Nothing especially interesting happened on the rest of the way. Stepping out of the taxi I pulled my hood up, to mostly conceal my face, before I started walking. Once I got to the spaceport check-in, a pleasant asari scanned the ticket from my omni-tool and let me board the ship. Security scanners didn't say a beep as I walked through them, the case paying dividends yet again. The ship was quite large, about cruiser weight, and could carry around 5 000 passengers apparently. I reached my rather basic room after a while of searching and threw my bag on a small couch. The quarters had a one person bed, hideously expensive refreshment fridge, small bathroom, and the aforementioned couch. I eased myself on the bed and set the alarm to wake me at latest when the ship was supposed to arrive in the Serpent Nebula where the Citadel was located. I then started to navigate through random shit on the extranet, in a attempt to kill time until sleep came to me.

* * *

**Hours Later, Illium - Upper Illium Police Department Main Office**

**Lieutenant Anxus**

Anxus was sitting in his office, reading the day's news on his omni-tool as a officer of his walked through the door with a datapad. "Lieutenant, Officer Hemes sent me to tell you that here has been progress in the Barnett murder case. Apparently a lower district officer recognized his face whilst investigating a case." Officer Jalopi, as I remebered his name to be, explained and offered the datapad to me.

"I see, thank you." I replied, taking the datapad. I leaned back in my chair, reading the report and waved Jalopi off. Interesting, apparently the perpetrator had been walking down a alley on the lower levels, when a group of three muggers had tried to take him on, right under one of our active-surveillance cameras. Tried being the keyword here, the goddamn animal dispatched them in seconds. But we did get a full view of him, face and all. I examined the picture of him that was attached on the report with great interest. He was tall for a human, estimated to be around 6'3, and had a quite lean build as was typical for career military humans. His face was quite angular and the skin on his face was rough. Eyebrows were set in a serious frown and below them was a strong nose that looked like it had been broken atleast a few times in the past. Short beard and medium length hair finished my quick summary of him.

It was a damn jackpot. He could not hide in plain sight anymore. If a camera, that our surveillance network had access to saw him, it would immediately ping the officer assigned to the case.

I stood up and put my hat on, grabbing the visor and twisting to straighten it to a presentable look. I walked with a look of purpose right into Hemes' office and closed the door behind me. Hemes seemed a bit haggard, like he hadn't slept and looked to be in the middle of a intensive dive to the depths of a veritable sea of information. Dozens of datapads were scattered around him in a controlled chaos. I cleared my throat to get his attention, and he snapped to look at me. "I got your report Officer. Excellent job so far..." I started, sitting down on the plush leather chair opposite of him. The lumbar support of these things had saved thousands in medical leave.

Hemes cut in before I could continue my sentence. "Ah, thank you Lieutenant. I was just about to come and see you. I was looking through the cameras in the area where the incident happened, and I managed to trace his steps through backtracking the cameras, right back to his hideout." He finished with a satisfied look.

I was quite impressed with his work, in fact so impressed, that I chose to overlook him cutting me off. Less than 24 standard hours had gone by, and already Hemes had managed to locate the dwelling of this assassin. "Where is the building located?" I inquired and Hemes slid the relevant datapad to my side of the table. I looked it over for a while.

"This is lower level departments area of jurisdiction, but I can get it transferred to us no problem. Gather a team to hit the place in an hour, I'll handle the bureaucracy myself." I ordered Hemes and rose from the chair with a groan, I was starting to get old. I heard a distracted 'On it, sir.' from Hemes, no doubt hard at work already as I left to get the relevant paperwork done.

* * *

**70 minutes later, Illium - In Front Of The Suspects Hideout**

**Lieutenant Anxus**

Getting the permission to search the place had been more of a hassle than I expected, but in the end Captain Aniala had accepted, with one condition: The lower PD officer who had found our suspect, would be coming with us. I personally suspect it was purely to annoy me with the over enthusiastic rookie rather than any, 'cross-department co-operation exercise' as she claimed.

So thus, me and Officer Hemes were accompanied by a young human, Officer Cira Evitt as we moved in through the dingy doors. The rest of the team had already spread out to cover all the exits, in case the perp was in and on a running mood. The inside was not much better than the piss filled alley we had just come from, the walls were rusty, furniture falling apart and a small puddle of some nondescript liquid was right in my way. I saw Officer Evitt shudder visibly as she looked at the liquid. I deftly stepped over the puddle without even breaking stride. A ancient looking turian was sitting behind the counter looking at us from over his omni-tool. "You better have a damn warrant, burstin' into here like that and scaring off all my customers." He complained with a voice as smooth as gravel.

I nodded at Hemes to show the warrant to the man. "One of your guests is precisely why were here old-timer." I answered him. The turian was squinting for a while at the small text of the warrant but then sat back down with a grumble. "Allright, whaddayawant?"

Before I could give the order, Evitt was already holding a picture of the suspect at his face. "Does this man stay in your establishment, sir?" She asked. If looks could kill, she would have been evaporated on the spot from the force of my stare at the back of her head. But I bit my tongue and said nothing, for now. I could give her an earful in private.

"Yeah, the rough lookin' human. Left this morning." The grumpy old codger said after a moment of pondering at the picture. "We require the name he used to register as a occupant, and left? With no intention of returning?" Hemes inquired in his, sometimes annoyingly fast voice.

"Said something about bein' done here when he left." He answered and dug out a, and I swear by the spirits I'm not lying, goddamn paper book. He opened it, releasing a mountain of dust from inside and muttered to himself for a moment. "Reads Jack Hammer 'ere on my book, so that's the name he gave." He finished snapping the old tome shut, throwing around even more dust.

"Damn it. Looks like we missed him, but maybe the name will be of some use, write it down." I said to Hemes, who nodded.

"Uhm, Sir. You are aware that Jackhammer is not a name, but a tool?" The human rookie enquired from behind me. I turned my upper body slowly so that my famous death-glare landed straight at her. It had made even the toughest son of a bitch tremble back in my Drill Sergeant days. "Do you think me dim-witted, JUNIOR Officer Evitt?" She furiously shaked her head whilst sweating under my piercing gaze, unable to form words at the moment. "Then you must realize I am aware of the fact that the name is fake, but did you take time to think that he might use it someplace else again, and as we now know it, we will have a lead on his location." I took a short breath. "Next time you wish to question my capability, you may do so in private. Are we clear?" I thundered down at her, receiving a peep of a 'yes sir' back.

I turned back towards the counter where Hemes was looking at us with his usual neutral disposition, the other-leg-in-the-grave turian on the other hand was giving a shit eating smirk at the display. "We will be searching his former apartment, hand over the key to Officer Hemes." I said to the old bastard, my voice back to it's authorative, yet calm self. The smirk on his face was gone as soon as he heard the word 'search' and went back to the look of having smelt a rotting batarian corpse. Which was not impossible down here now that I think about it. "If you break anything you're payin' for it!" He yelled as I was already moving towards the singular elevator of the lobby.

The room was as run-down as the rest of the building. Other than a few pieces of trash here and there the place looked almost unlived in. Hemes scanned the room for any biological matter that could be found, while Evitt was standing awkwardly next to the door. I was content to let her stew in it. Who knows, might even learn to respect her superiors. The scan beeped to inform of its completion. I patiently waited as Hemes read through the report from the screen of his omni-tool. "Few good samples of DNA. No match in database but I've stored them in the assassins file." Hemes summarized and looked up at me.

"Where do you reckon our assassin has gone to, Hemes?" I inquired from him. I had my own theories but it always paid to confirm them. "Likely came in from off-planet to do the job and left once finished. Unlikely we are going to catch him." Hemes rarely showed any emotion, but frustration was new even to me.

"We'll send out datapacks to our counterparts on the Citadel, in case he went there, but other than that I fear you are correct, and there is little we can do. But if he shows his bare face back here, we are going to catch him." Hemes nodded his assent at my statement.

Cop-killers didn't get to walk free on my planet.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula - On Final Approach To The Citadel**

**Thomas Fulton**

The Citadel was looking as magnificent as ever, floating in the striking violets and blues of the nebula like a metallic flower on the surface of a deep sea. Thousands of ships buzzing around it, like bees to a hive. I could hear the excited yells of children and amazed gasps of adults that were near me in my seat on the viewing deck. We were only about 30 minutes out and some time after that we would process out. I much preferred the spartan, military way of travelling to these civilian luxury barges but I took what I could get. And my very own room was nothing to scoff at, nobody to peek over and comment something , in their minds hilarious over my shoulder as I was doing something that required concentration. Like planning a mission.

Speaking of.

My current plan was to get a room in the shady part of town, prepare, walk into C-sec like my taxes paid the place, and ask about Garrus Vakarian. I had decided to act as Emmett Laverra, former neighbour of Garrus' on the Citadel and pretend that he had left his pet in my care when he disappeared, but my sudden illness meant that I could no longer care for it. So I would naturally require his location to return his dear 'Muffinbottom'. Of course the plan was not perfect. My cover story was extremely flimsy, as in, if you took a breath too hard it would fall over, but as in all things, confidence was the key. If I acted naturally enough, I was doubtful that there'd be trouble.

The intercom crackled on; _"We will be docking with the Citadel in 15 minutes. Once there, please move in a orderly line through the security checkpoint. Thank you for travelling with..." _I tuned out the droning of the announcer and rose to my feet. I'd have to get my bag from the cabin, before we arrived.

I wanted to avoid worst of the human and alien masses trying to leave all at once.

* * *

Writers' note:

If you want a visual reference to what Tommy-boy here looks like in my headcannon, please go to imgur and add this to the end of the address bar: /a/cyBvzlq


	4. Citadelian Psycho

**2184, Later That Day, Citadel - Tom's Apartment**

**Thomas Fulton**

The sliding metal door to my new safehouse closed with a jagged clank. As was my custom when choosing a place to bunk in, the dwelling was extremely cheap and not exactly clean. I threw my bag on the very uncomfortable looking bed and started to dig through it. After a moment of rummaging I found the new pants that I'd bought from a small military surplus store on the lower wards. They were dark blue reinforced combat pants made out of tactical mesh, C-Sec issue would be my guess. I was surprised that you could get this type of clothing somewhat 'legally', but then again, that slimy salarian behind the counter probably didn't have a license to sell even a goddamn pet fish by the looks of him. Not that I have anything particular against salarians but if you'd seen him, you'd agree with me. The man acted shiftier than a batarian on Elysium. After a while of musing, I threw the pants back on the road-worn bag and sat heavily next to it on the creaky bed.

My arrival to the station had not gone as well as I'd hoped. My weapon case did it's job again and the scanners didn't make a sound as I walked through them, but the turian at the desk looked at me quite suspiciously and peered over my info a couple of times. Eventually he let me through nonetheless, but I don't rightly know what I did to warrant his suspicion, though I suspect he was just a good old xenophobe. Looked the age to have fought in the first contact war too so maybe I just gave him bad memories or something. Would have been quite fucking shitty if I would have been nabbed, not because of my own error but just plain old rotten luck. But, well, I didn't get caught. Lucky me I guess.

I turned to look through the small worn window that decorated the yellowish white walls of my temporary home. It was night cycle on the citadel, so I couldn't go to C-Sec to execute my plan until tomorrow. I had nothing left to do this evening regarding that and I knew sleep would elude me right now, so I chose to go for the next best thing to use up the artificial night of the station. A glass of nice bourbon.

* * *

**An Hour Later, Citadel - Dark Star Lounge**

**Thomas Fulton**

The music from the club could be heard from a few blocks away already. Dark Star Lounge was not my first choice for a bar, but as it happens, since I last was on the station, my normal dive Chora's Den was apparently permanently closed after the owner was killed. Granted he was a real scumbag of a man, but that doesn't mean I can't be frustrated for having to look for a new place to drink. Soon the neon light bathed entrance of the club came to my view. The line was luckily not long so I gained entrance after a few minutes of queueing. The bouncer grunted at me to not cause any trouble as I walked by him.

I don't know what's with people targeting me today. Granted, they were not wrong, but they also presumably were not omnipotent so to them I should have looked like a normal human male. It was odd. Or maybe I was not that good at hiding my intentions. Well that realization didn't bode well for tomorrow.

Amidst my thinking I had arrived at the bar. "Any top shelf bourbon." I said to the asari bartender who nodded and started pouring my drink. The club was quite spacious on the inside, with a large dance floor, where humans and aliens were all swaying to the tune of alcohol, music and drugs. Some Alliance grunts on shore leave were loudly laughing at one table and in another two krogans were talking to each other in oddly subdued manner for their race. I sat down on the barstool as my drink slid before me.

"That'd be twenty credits, handsome." I just grunted an acknowledgement and paid the drink on my omni-tool and took a sip. It was quite good stuff, probably imported from earth. The asari, apparently aggrieved by my non-answer to her flirting huffed and went to serve some drunk or the other. I didn't care, my purpose here was to enjoy my drink and not satisfy some asari's need for company.

As I slowly consumed my drink, I again looked at where the Alliance marines were spending their night. There were about ten of them, still clad in their uniforms. Most of them looked to be quite ready to slide under the filthy looking table and pass out. Reminds me of my own time as a fresh faced marine back in the sixties, though I'd been an officer so long that my first thought was to go and order them to act like representatives of the Alliance military, not some drunken rabble. Old habits are hard to kick off, even if you really would want to forget them. It seems i got a permanent stick up my ass in addition to the tin legs from the Alliance. I amusedly blew air out of my nose for my own joke.

Turning my head back towards the bar before I'd go up to them against my better judgement, I heard someone sit on a stool next to me. The asari had left at some point and now manning the bar was a middle aged human man mixing some kind of vodka based drink for someone. I was about to take another sip of my bourbon when a familiar voice called out to me from the seat next to me; "It's been a while Major."

I nearly spilt my drink from surprise. Nobody had called me Major in years. I turned to look at the woman who I recognized and replied; "Corporal."

"Sergeant actually. Well, at least I was before leaving the military." Eline replied smiling at me, the scar on her face twisting on her cheek. I had not seen her since that day on Torfan as she was carried onto the med-evac, and to be frank I had not expected to see her again. With the discharge and all that, I had lost contact to most of my old unit, Rook being a notable exception. She was wearing a tight fitting black cocktail dress and her light brown hair landed on the shoulders. Compared to me, she fit into the general theme around the club a lot better.

"Well I suppose congratulations are in order then Sergeant." I raised my glass at her. "Well as I said I'm no longer in service, but thanks nonetheless Major." She replied and raised her own glass to toast with me, smiling even wider. "Just call me Tom, I haven't been a Major in a long time." I replied, taking another sip of my bourbon.

"Well then you have to call me Jess if I cant call you Major anymore Major... I mean Tom." Her blue eyes seemed to glimmer with amusement. She looked to be a few drinks deep already judging by how her smile didn't leave her face for a second. "What brings you to this place Tom? No offence but I don't remember you being the type to go to dance clubs that often." She continued.

"Hm, you remember right. My usual bar was closed quite permanently and this was rated to have good drinks. Haven't been to the citadel in a while so haven't had the time to look for a better place." I explained to her with a small amount of amusement at her antics. "And what about you? What brings you here?"

"Well I'm here for work but you need to unwind a bit sometimes, you know?" I looked at her with a blank face. "Oh, yeah sorry Mmm-Tom, I forgot you don't really do the unwinding like us normal people." She laughed a little at my now a bit sour looking face.

"I don't mean it as an offence, you just always did things your own, quite serious way. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact it was rather charming in a way." I noticed that she had leaned a bit closer to me during our conversation. She turned to the bar and started to order herself a new drink. "I guess I did." I said mostly to myself and drank the last of my drink. After she had managed to get a new drink in hand she turned back to me.

"So Tom, what have you been doing since we last met?" I didn't quite know what I wanted to, or could answer to that question, but something about seeing a friendly face in Eline, here of all places made me want to converse with her. "Worked as a mercenary for a while, recently I've been... travelling mostly." I said after a moment of thinking.

"Sounds exciting! Though nothing like I imagined. I'd have bet you to get a lovely wife, litter of children you'd keep in military discipline and start growing cabbages on some backwater colony, yelling at the other kids on your lawn like my family's childhood neighbor back on Earth." The absurdity of her thought of me growing cabbages made me genuinely laugh out loud for the first time in a long time. "I'm sorry to disappoint, but nothing like that I'm afraid." I said after I'd gotten my laughter in control, still smiling a little.

"Not even the wife?" She asked, sounding quite curious.

"I'll have to refer you to my earlier statement, but enough about me. What have you been doing since you left the Alliance? And if you don't mind me asking why did you leave?"

"Oh not at all. After Torfan and nearly dying I just felt that I needed to do something different. Something less dangerous, and so I've been doing same old tech stuff as in the Alliance, but without the bullets flying overhead. Nothing to raise your heart rate too much. But you know I do miss the adrenaline rush of getting a reinforced door open as assault rifles sing around me like a choir of whirling death."

"You make it sound very romanticized, but I do get what you mean." I mused.

Our conversation continued with variety of topics for the better part of two hours. She told me about her work and life after Torfan and I mostly told her about some of the places I've been to. During a lull in our talking she let out air of her nose contentedly and smiled at me.

"Tom, I am so glad I bumped into you in here. I wondered what happened to you after I was released from the hospital, and I heard that you too had been wounded and then discharged from the Alliance! I was so shocked that they really did that, almost didn't believe it."

"Yeah, well it seems the Alliance didn't need a legless, PR disaster of a soldier anymore." I replied in a what must have sounded like a bitter tone. And to be fair, I indeed am bitter at the Alliance. I won't deny that. "For what it's worth Tom, I think you made the right choice in the situation." She said seriously, looking me right in the eyes.

I sighed. "Sorry about that, don't let a bitter old soldier ruin your eveni... " Before I could finish my sentence and to my great surprise, she suddenly leaned over and pressed her lips to mine and kissed me. I was momentarily so taken aback of the sudden action that for a while I just sat there, her lips locked to mine. After a few seconds I had recovered from the surprise and I gently started to push her away from me and as our mouths were separated she opened her eyes and looked at mine in confusion for a moment until she seemed to realize what she'd done and quickly started to apologize. "I'm so sorry, that was entirely inappropriate of me, I didn't want... I mean I-" I cut her off with a uplifted hand. "It's fine Jess, it's just that I... can't. Not right now, not with anyone. I'm sorry if I led you on. It was not my intention.

"No, I'd just hoped... No I'm sorry Major. I should not have done that." She said starting out sadly but ending with her voice gaining strength and looking at me directly in the eye, but after she had finished she again moved her gaze at the blurry glass surface of the bar. The sounds of the club raved on around us, beats of some electronic music washing over me with force but it still felt like a dread silence had fallen over the room.

After a while I cleared my throat and stood up; "I think it's best if I get going. I have business to do tomorrow." She lift her eyes back to me and interrupted my exit with a hand. "Wait a second please, I'll send you my omni-tool contact info. If you ever need something or just want to talk, call me. I'd like to keep in touch." She said with a small smile, some of her energy returning to her.

I smiled at her, "I don't see why not." and opened my omni-tool to receive her contact info. After that we said our goodbyes and I started to walk to the exit and head back to the ramshackle apartment I was staying in. Before I was out I heard her yell after me; "It was nice seeing you again Tom!" I turned back and gave her a small smile again and then continued walking.

"You too, Jess" I sighed to myself as I left the club behind me and started through the dark and seedy alleys for my destination.

* * *

_\- The snow crunched under my combat boots as I advanced at the head of a formation. It was my squad, my friends; Jonathan, Emma, Paul, and... Nora. They were following me towards the skyscraper that was at the end of the street we were on. Pedestrians were all around us and gave way to us as we advanced. Hundreds of human faces watched as we moved slowly forwards, scanning the crowd and the other buildings as we went. _

_Eventually we reached the building and just as we were about to enter the building suddenly shifted form and became a smallish stand with some glowing metal orb levitating on it. I advanced towards the orb, but before I could grab it, a young kid in his teens moved to block my way. I recognized the boy and stopped to point my pistol at him. The kid did not flinch. I felt myself get angry. Why would he NOT MOVE? Why didn't he FEAR me!? I felt my anger bubbling over me and my finger pressed the trigger down. A red flash came from my pistol and the kid fell down. He looked like he'd been beaten and stabbed, not shot, but I did not care. I stepped over his prone form and extended my hand towards the orb. As I grabbed the object I heard Jonathan yell in panic behind me. I turned and saw that the humans that were on the street had turned into batarians that had dragged Jonathan to the ground and were clawing at him. I took aim and shot at the batarian directly on top of Jonathan and as my bullet hit, he turned into a human who fell dead with a hole through his head. I dropped my gun in shock of what I had done. I had shot a human, one of those I had sworn to PROTECT with my life! Rest of my squad started firing into the crowd that were now all human, mowing down dozens who fell dead on the ground, painting the snow bright red. I frantically yelled at them to stop firing and they did but the snow was already crimson with bodies as far as I could see. _

_Suddenly everyone, my friends and the crowd, turned to look at me as Nora walked to face me at the orb's stand. She picked up my dropped gun and handed it to me, and to my horror I rose the gun to point at her forehead. I tried to yell to warn Nora and drop the gun but nothing came out of my mouth and the gun held steady pointed at her smiling face. Others of my squad pointed their own weapons at themselves in front of the gathered crowd of humans, I tried to trash, to do ANYTHING but i couldn't. I felt my finger tighten on the trigger and with all my effort I tried again and again and again and again, but then... I fired. -_

**Early Next Morning, Citadel - Tom's Apartment**

**Thomas Fulton**

"NORA!" I jumped up yelling in my bed. My breath was fast and heavy as I pressed my hands onto my forehead. I sat there on my bed in that position for multiple minutes until my breathing had eased back to a relatively normal level. I grabbed my pills from the table next to the bed and quickly swallowed a few of the capsules. I hadn't had the dream for a few weeks, but every time it came, it would change somewhat but the ending was always the same. They would shoot themselves and I would shoot Nora whilst holding the artifact.

I wiped the gathered sweat from my brow and opened my omni-tool to look at the clock. The orange display lit me and my dim surrounding aflame with it's glow as I peered at the time; 06:30 in the morning. Closing the omni-tool I sighed heavily, threw the cover off and rose from the bed and headed for the shower.

The cool water was doing wonders in clearing my head and as a added bonus, removing the slight headache I had from the drinking last night. It had been nice seeing a friendly face after a while, but I could not afford to let it affect my mission here. Speaking of, it would take me an hour or so to travel to the headquarters of the C-Sec so I'd be there in at a good time if I left after dressing and arming myself. There shouldn't be that many people there yet at that time, in case that my plan failed. It could get ugly.

I put on my usual get-up, only difference my newly acquired, and absolutely legal for civilians, pants. I then went to my weapon case and clicked it open. It'd probably be wise to go in armed lightly, if I arrived touting an assault rifle they might get a tad suspicious. I took a combat knife and slid it with a sheath inside my boot, to fulfill the role of a backup weapon. My Carnifex found it's familiar place under my arm, inside my jacket. I made a last mental sweep for anything that I might still need but couldn't think of anything else so I pulled up the hood of my coat and left the ramshackle apartment behind for the time being.

* * *

**Approx. 8 AM, Citadel - C-Sec Headquarters**

**Officer Ilona Enstone**

She had just arrived on the morning shift and not even a minute after sitting down at the desk, already someone had entered through the front door into the still empty lobby. A rather grim looking human man wearing a dark coat was purposefully striding towards the desk she was manning.

She mentally composed herself and readied her best customer service voice. She'd much rather be filing paperwork in the back, but she had promised to Vellus to cover for his morning shift at the desk, and what wouldn't she do for that sex god of a turian. Just thinking about him made her feel hot, Her dreaming was interrupted by the man clearing their throat, and she mentally cursed herself for her short attention span.

"Oh, hello and welcome to Citadel Security headquarters, may I be of some assistance?" Well at least she didn't stumble over her words too much.

"Hello, my name is Emmet Laverra and I'd like to inquire about one of your former officers, Garrus Vakarian." The grim looking man said without an ounce of smile. His stoicism put her on edge for some reason, but despite that she gave her best smile and replied: "Of course Mr. Laverra, please hold for a moment as I..." The screen on her desk gave a pinging noise as it informed her that the man standing in front of her had been recognized by the automated system. Her heart was suddenly beating much more rapidly than before as the screen informed her that the man standing at the desk was wanted for double murder on Illium, one of the victims being an Illium PD officer. She hoped that the man didn't notice her nervousness as she talked to him again: "I'm sorry Sir, but something urgent's come up. Would you mind waiting for a few minutes here?" She said as she leaned in to press the alarm button on her desk, intending to leave after having made the alert.

Suddenly the man was leaning over the counter and took a hold of her collar with his other hand and the other coming to stop her from pressing the alarm. She squeaked in panic as her finger managed to press the button before he could stop her. The man noticed this and pulled her more towards himself, glaring at her with cold grey eyes of a killer. She nearly fainted from breathing too fast.

"You really shouldn't have done that." The man said with a cold voice and from the corner of her eye she saw his other hand descending on her before the world was shrouded in black.

**Thomas Fulton**

The receptionist fell onto her desk and slid to the floor unconscious as I released her collar. Damn it all. She had managed to press the button before I could stop her. I instantly noticed from her body language that my cover was blown, though I don't know how they recognized me. I'd have to figure that one out later as I needed to get the fuck out of here and fast. I took off sprinting back towards the door I had entered through and saw a security screen moving from the side to block my passage. My artificial legs propelling me faster than my organic ones could, and I ran straight through the glass door of the station, covering my face as I crashed with the glass. Shards flew all around me as I continued running towards an alley nearby that I had planned my escape route to start from. Stinging in my side alerted me to a glass shard embedded between my ribs. The wound was bleeding quite heavily and I stopped for a second to break the part of the shard jabbing outside my body off so that it would not hinder my escape.

As I started moving again I could hear far away shouts telling me to stop and a cacophony of sirens nearing me. I paid them no mind. They would not shoot as long as there were people around. I sprinted further down the alley, dodging the people walking through it, and saw another way to the right. I took a turn there, nearly bumping into a turian that was cornering at the same time as me. When I was nearing the end of the alley, I saw an police cruiser stopping in front of the exit. Before they could exit their vehicle I pulled my Carnifex out and shot a few stray shots at them to give myself some time to think for a new route. I heard some screams from behind the police cruiser and hurried steps of people leaving the area. Bullets would start flying soon. There was a side entrance to some building on the left of me and I tried to open it. Locked. But it was not one of those infuriating sliding doors, but a regular door with hinges, so I pulled my leg back and kicked hard next to the handle. The door buckled inwards just as gunshots started to ricochet around me. I quickly ducked inside.

The building seemed to be a storage or a backroom of some store as it was filled with packaged goods of some sort. In the dim light inside I spotted another door on the other side of the room and ran to it. I opened the lock from the inside and exited to the alley on the other side of the building. Before I could scan the alley, I was bowled over by something.

I hit the ground hard and my vision blurred for a moment. My sight adjusted shortly back to normal and I focused on the person who tackled me. The human officer had not fared much better than me in the landing and seemed to be reorienting himself too. My Carnifex had flown a few meters away so I decided to lunge at him to try and take the officer's gun from it's place at his side. He unfortunately managed to position himself so that as I hit my him, my chest struck his shoulder, the glass shard in my side protesting with a sharp stabbing pain. I grit my teeth and tried to grab him in a headlock but he managed to duck away from it and with the same movement spun up and pulled his gun out.

"Don't move!" He yelled, but it was too late already as my leg swept his off the dirty ground of the alley. He landed with a painful thud on the ground, accidentally pressing the trigger as he fell. The bullet missed my head by an inch if even that. I quickly approached wrestling the gun from his hand and pointed it at his lying form. His eyes were full of fear as he looked at me. Moving the aim from his head to his leg I shot him in the thigh and then threw the gun down the alley. He screamed in agony as I collected my Carnifex from the ground and restarted my escape along the alley. The people had cleared quickly from the area and now I could hear only the screams of the guy I shot in the leg and echoes of sirens bouncing around me from the building around me.

My original escape plan was royally fucked I thought whilst I rounded a few more corners along the deserted alley until I came up to an exit again. The street beyond was very quiet, and I leaned out to look around; The sirens were clearly coming towards me but I could not see anything at the moment. There were two different streets branching off from this one close by and I decided to head for the one further away from the incoming sirens. I started jogging towards it whilst holding my quite heavily bleeding side.

Before I could reach there, a police cruiser without it's sirens came flying from the street I was headed for. I bit out a few choice words and doubled back towards the street closer to the ever closer looming sirens. The other cruiser turned on it's sirens also and turned to chase after me as I disappeared behind the street corner. The road I was on was narrow and the buildings lining it had no doorways into them. Only path was further down, where after thirty meters or so the street turned at a ninety degree angle to the left. I hoped that there was a way through there.

I could hear the screaming sirens stop at the entrance into the street and shortly after, running footsteps behind me. I rounded the corner and the last of my hope for escape disappeared. The alley ended in another building, with no way around it. There was no doors or windows on this side, only a large trash compactor. I just stared at the end of the street as the footsteps behind me reached the corner. Now that I was stopped, the blood loss was starting to affect me as my head felt quite light.

I heard atleast three different people shout at me to get on the ground and to surrender at the same time. I slowly threw my Carnifex to the ground and went to my knees as I held my side with one of my hands. Last I rose my hands behind my head, only one word going through my head at that moment.

"Shit."

* * *

Writer's note:

Took a while, eh? Please excuse any spelling mistakes.


End file.
